Nauset's 10-Goal Surge Sinks Boys Lacrosse

Photography by David Creed

It was an unusual game between the Nantucket and Nauset boys lacrosse teams on Thursday. Both teams field plenty of talent in their lineups, and both sides had points throughout the course of the game where their talent controlled the pace of play and had the other side on their heels.

But ultimately Nantucket lost to Nauset 15-10. It started out with Nantucket scoring six of the game’s first nine goals. They controlled the pace of play, were opportunistic with their chances, and defensively they were sound while benefitting from timely saves by senior goalie George Boucher.
Sophomore attacker Cole Chambers and sophomore midfielder/attacker Jack Halik came out buzzing, combining to score five of Nantucket’s first six goals.
But the Warriors wouldn’t go quietly. They scored four unanswered goals in the final six minutes of the second quarter to take a 7-6 lead into halftime and eventually exploded for six more goals to begin the third quarter and put the Whalers in a 13-6 hole.

"Honestly it was missed assignments on defense," head coach Sam Aloisi said of Nauset scoring 10 unanswered goals. "We knew exactly what we were going to do. The first quarter we stopped them and then in the second quarter I don't know what happened. We just started playing individual defense instead of team defense and that is what happens against a good team like this. They recognize when you make the wrong slide even if at the time it seems like the right thing to do for our guy, its the wrong thing because two more passes and its a layup."
Nantucket kept clawing away, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

"We missed too many shots. We had a lot of opportunities but we just missed the net," Aloisi said. "Dropped balls, I mean there were a few of those. I think we had 10 penalties and gave up seven man-down goals, which is a pretty bad percentage. The frustrating part is we knew exactly what they were doing and we told the guys. Our players knew what they were doing. I don't know where the breakdown came but it is on film so we will try to figure it out. It was basically just blown assignments. That second quarter we forced a lot of balls on offense into the middle but it just wasn't there whereas in the first quarter and a half we were way more patient and things opened up."
Chambers finished with a team-high five goals. Halik had two goals. Senior midfielders Makai Bodden and Camden Knapp each had goals. Senior attacker Cosmo Tedeschi also scored.

Senior face-off man Cole Evens did a great job on faceoffs to begin the game. Evens has been a strength of this team all season long, and Nauset decided to counter his strong play by putting in a new face-off man to combat Evens, which made it more even and gave the Warriors more offensive opportunities.

"That guy on Nauset has been handling everyone on the Cape and Cole Evens handled him today," Aloisi said. "So they brought in a freshman and he got the better of Cole. It is just matchups. Some guys just matchup against others better."

Aloisi felt like his defense began to return to form in the fourth quarter. It showed in the box score as Nantucket scored four of the final six goals of the game. Aloisi also believes senior goalie George Boucher was great in net for his team.

"George played awesome. I think George played an unbelievable game," Aloisi said. "Most of those goals he didn't have a chance. These guys can shoot and they were 10 yard looks. These guys have 90 mile per hour shots and then on the others they came on fast breaks, made the extra pass, and George just didn't have a chance. But George stayed in and for him to stay in there, not lose his cool despite giving up 15 goals in which maybe three of them were on George, the rest were on everyone else, it was impressive. He played great."
The Whalers are now 3-5 this season. They are scheduled to travel to Dennis-Yarmouth on Monday, May 9, at 4 p.m. for a showdown with the Dolphins.